April 2021 - vcf-midatlantic

Need c128 psus
by Ethan O'Toole 29 Apr '21

29 Apr '21

Picked up a broken c128 at swapmeet as did a friend. Looking for two c128 psus... Rather mot build them nor aftermarket from overseas.

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VCF Southeast is back!
by Jeffrey Brace 29 Apr '21

29 Apr '21

August 20-22, 2021. This year they’re at a NEW LOCATION! They will be at the Marriott Renaissance Waverly in Atlanta, GA. They’re co-located with the Southern Fried Gaming Expo (who are sponsoring their space!) There will be Speakers, Exhibits, Hands-on Activities, Consignment, Vendors, Concessions, For complete information, exhibit registration and updates, please follow this link: https://vcfed.org/wp/festivals/otherevents/vintage-computer-festival-southe… ========================================= Jeff Brace Vice President & Board Member Vintage Computer Festival East Show-runner Vintage Computer Federation is a 501c3 charity http://www.vcfed.org/ jeffrey(a)vcfed.org

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Free stuff - Sperry PC, Laser Jet 4000s, HP Desk Plotter, Kilobaud mags, etc.
by Bill Degnan 29 Apr '21

29 Apr '21

Free stuff. Kennett Square (kennettclassic.com) Came in as a donation but I don't have space for these things. Free only to VCF and Kennett Classic "members" only please. The kilobaud on the top of the stack has some water damage but the mags underneath are in better shape. NOTE - From the photos I plan to keep one of the Sperry PCs. The red box in the back I am told is another plotter I have not opened the box. The Televideo terminal is untested includes keyboard. YES you can take only what you want NO I will not ship YES what remains will be recycled. FIRST COME FIRST SERVED (although I suppose $$ talks if you must have one of the items and can't make it right away :-) directions and store hours: https://www.kennettclassic.com Questions? - https://www.kennettclassic.com/contact.cfm Bill

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Hackaday covers the VCF swap meet
by Mark Whittington 28 Apr '21

28 Apr '21

https://hackaday.com/2021/04/28/vcf-swap-meet-takes-step-back-to-move-forwa…

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Re: [vcf-midatlantic] Hackaday covers the VCF swap meet
by Neil Cherry 28 Apr '21

28 Apr '21

Came up on my phones news app. Thought it was a N. Korean nuke site until I saw VCF. Weird, I don't think we have a VCF in N. Korean. -- Linux Home Automation Neil Cherry ncherry(a)linuxha.com http://www.linuxha.com/ Main site http://linuxha.blogspot.com/ My HA Blog Author of: Linux Smart Homes For Dummies

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People staying overnight in Sandy area
by Jeffrey Brace 27 Apr '21

27 Apr '21

Anyone staying overnight in the Sanday Area, please put back the thermostat to the original setting and turn off the lights if you are the last person. They were left on Sunday night and it is costly to the caretakers of the building. Thanks! Also if anyone heard any suspicious activity while you were staying there, then please let me know. It seems that someone got into the outside kitchen trailer and was burning soy sauce and other food stuff they found in the pans outside. It is likely teenage vandals. Thanks again! ========================================= Jeff Brace Vice President & Board Member Vintage Computer Festival East Show-runner Vintage Computer Federation is a 501c3 charity http://www.vcfed.org/ jeffrey(a)vcfed.org

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Re: [vcf-midatlantic] Swap meet and workshop experience
by Alexander Jacocks 27 Apr '21

27 Apr '21

It was great to have you there, Bryan! I hope to get to speak to you in person, soon. - Alex On Tue, Apr 27, 2021 at 6:57 PM W. Bryan Caudle via vcf-midatlantic < vcf-midatlantic(a)lists.vcfed.org> wrote: > As a noob to both the swap meet and workshops, I wanted to take a moment > to express my thanks to the VCF team, volunteers, and participants for > creating such a successful weekend. I truly had no idea what to expect for > either event, but I was impressed with the turnout and enthusiasm that > everyone shared. As others have shared, I am looking forward to future > events. As far as suggestions go for the swap meet, I overheard > conversations about having food trucks next time, and I agree with that > effort. I also think including the HAM radio folks was a good move. I > would encourage additional outreach to other similar audiences, one in > particular might be the retro gaming community. I know that some folks > might have a different opinion, but I think gaming and computing are > inexorably linked as both sides have driven innovation on the other side. > I also know that game collectors are passionate as well about their systems > and many crossovers exist between gaming consoles and 8/16 bit micros in > particular. Perhaps engaging some local retro game shops could help with > promotion of the event, and maybe they might even want to participate as > vendors to liquidate some excess inventory. I’m sure there are other ways > to engage this community as well. I managed to sell some games and know > other vendors did as well, so there was some level of demand and/or > nostalgia at work there. Just something to think about. > > For me personally, I may not have sold as many items as I had hoped, but I > had a variety of things and didn’t always have the best price points on > certain items. I learned a lot from this and will be better prepared for > next time. I was happy to pick up a couple of things (Apple IIc and > Magnavox Odyssey2) along with some software and small bits from the free > bins 😊. I could still see out of my car for the drive home so I’d call it > a success. While this was my first computer swap meet, I am experienced > with vendor fairs in other genres, and have sometimes found it to be > helpful when the organizer tracks the vendor spaces. They can be assigned > spaces, but don’t have to be. Just assign each vendor a number/sign/tag > for their vehicle or space so that questions like “who was that commodore > guy” can be more easily answered. > > For my workshop report, again I was overzealous in my expectations and > brought along 3 projects. Thankfully I was able to make progress on one > system, the Commodore Pet 2001. With great help and advice from Ian and > others, it went from totally dead and disassembled, to a working power > supply, working CRT, and mainboard that initializes and boots (with a > corrupted display). Hopefully replacement video ram will correct that and > leave me with a working pet. Again, the opportunity to work alongside > others and share ideas was amazing and is such a nice change from doing > these projects in isolation. > > It was good to see some familiar faces, and to make some new friends. I > look forward to another event in the future, and thank you guys for giving > a reason to get out of the house after being home for the past year! > >

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Swap meet and workshop experience
by W. Bryan Caudle 27 Apr '21

27 Apr '21

As a noob to both the swap meet and workshops, I wanted to take a moment to express my thanks to the VCF team, volunteers, and participants for creating such a successful weekend. I truly had no idea what to expect for either event, but I was impressed with the turnout and enthusiasm that everyone shared. As others have shared, I am looking forward to future events. As far as suggestions go for the swap meet, I overheard conversations about having food trucks next time, and I agree with that effort. I also think including the HAM radio folks was a good move. I would encourage additional outreach to other similar audiences, one in particular might be the retro gaming community. I know that some folks might have a different opinion, but I think gaming and computing are inexorably linked as both sides have driven innovation on the other side. I also know that game collectors are passionate as well about their systems and many crossovers exist between gaming consoles and 8/16 bit micros in particular. Perhaps engaging some local retro game shops could help with promotion of the event, and maybe they might even want to participate as vendors to liquidate some excess inventory. I’m sure there are other ways to engage this community as well. I managed to sell some games and know other vendors did as well, so there was some level of demand and/or nostalgia at work there. Just something to think about. For me personally, I may not have sold as many items as I had hoped, but I had a variety of things and didn’t always have the best price points on certain items. I learned a lot from this and will be better prepared for next time. I was happy to pick up a couple of things (Apple IIc and Magnavox Odyssey2) along with some software and small bits from the free bins 😊. I could still see out of my car for the drive home so I’d call it a success. While this was my first computer swap meet, I am experienced with vendor fairs in other genres, and have sometimes found it to be helpful when the organizer tracks the vendor spaces. They can be assigned spaces, but don’t have to be. Just assign each vendor a number/sign/tag for their vehicle or space so that questions like “who was that commodore guy” can be more easily answered. For my workshop report, again I was overzealous in my expectations and brought along 3 projects. Thankfully I was able to make progress on one system, the Commodore Pet 2001. With great help and advice from Ian and others, it went from totally dead and disassembled, to a working power supply, working CRT, and mainboard that initializes and boots (with a corrupted display). Hopefully replacement video ram will correct that and leave me with a working pet. Again, the opportunity to work alongside others and share ideas was amazing and is such a nice change from doing these projects in isolation. It was good to see some familiar faces, and to make some new friends. I look forward to another event in the future, and thank you guys for giving a reason to get out of the house after being home for the past year!

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Workshop HP recap
by Mike Loewen 26 Apr '21

26 Apr '21

I worked on the museum's HP 2117F system all weekend, with mixed results. My objectives were to install missing boards in the CPU, evaluate the 7912 hard disc (65MB), and install the RTE-6/VM OS, if possible. Summary: 1. Populated the 2117F with additional RAM and the HP-IB controller 2. The 2621P terminal works 3. The 7912 appears to work 4. RTE-6/VM wouldn't completely load 5. We need a cable for the terminal, and a 13181A board set for the 7970B The warehouse has two HP 2113E units, which I used for spare parts. I pulled the 12821A (HP-IB) controller board and a 12749H (256K Word) memory board from one, and a memory connector cable and 7970 tape boot ROM from the other. The museum system now has 1M Word of ECC RAM installed. I removed a duplicate 264X CTU (Cartridge Tape Unit) boot ROM and replaced it with the 7970 (9-track tape) ROM. The old ROM is taped to the inside of the front panel. We're still missing the 13181A two-board set for the 7970B tape drive in the system rack (it wasn't in the system when we got it). I will continue to look for a board set that doesn't cost an arm and a leg. The I/O cage has a F.E.M. (Firmware Expansion Module) with the RTE6 OS/VMA/EMA and SIS (Scientific Instruction Set) ROMS installed. Also installed are the TBG (Time Base Generator), the 12821A (HP-IB) controller, and three BACI (Basic Asynchronous Communication Interface) boards to connect to terminals. The HP 2621P terminal in the museum also works, although the battery which maintains the settings is either dead or missing (I didn't look). It needs a cable to connect to the 2117F, which I may be able to make. I brought a cable from my terminal for testing. The 7912 hard disc appears to work. It spun up the first time, and passed its self-test. I was able to image the drive with a PC running the HPDir program, so I can inspect the data later on. I copied a RTE-6/VM image to the 7912, which I had prepared with the SimH hp2100 emulator for the specific configuration of the museum system. The bad news is that the 2117F would not successfully boot from the emulated drive (HPDrive) on the PC, or the 7912 drive. It would load from the drive, then go into what I was told is an "idle loop". Nothing was ever displayed on the terminal. I was able to load diagnostics from my HPDrive system, and output from the Diagnostic Configurator displayed on the terminal. I started running diagnostics, but ran out of time on Sunday and had to stop. My HP guru thinks that there may be a problem with the Time Base Generator, or the interrupt chain starting with the FEM. The next chance I get, I will run further diagnostics on the memory and suspect boards. The CPU is still available to run the "Cylon" demo program, keyed in from the front panel. Power for the system will be a concern when the hard drive is up and running. At one point, it tripped the breaker for the row of micros it was powered from. The HP cabinet has a power controller with a (I believe) 220V plug, which we may want to eventually use. It would eliminate the need to power on/off each unit individually. Mike Loewen mloewen(a)cpumagic.scol.pa.us Old Technology http://q7.neurotica.com/Oldtech/

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Swap Meet Photos
by Andrew Diller 26 Apr '21

26 Apr '21

I took a bunch of photos all thru the day, I tried to get every table. What a great time, I can't wait till the fall swap meet! https://imgur.com/a/bBxl9LS <https://imgur.com/a/bBxl9LS> -andy

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